1. Charges of Sexual Abuse at Penn State

By Megan GibsonWednesday, Dec. 07, 2011

Andy Colwell / The Patriot-News / AP

In what could easily be called the worst ever scandal in sports, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was indicted by a grand jury Nov. 4 on 40 counts of sexually abusing and assaulting young boys. As the founder of the Second Mile, a children's charity, Sandusky had spent much of his postretirement career mentoring underprivileged young boys; according to the grand-jury testimony, he was also molesting several of them. What elevated the horrific allegations to an all-out debacle were the revelations that many of Sandusky's colleagues at the university, including legendary head football coach Joe Paterno and the university's president, had been aware of his behavior with children and didn't do enough to stop him. One assistant coach reported seeing Sandusky raping a child who looked to be about 10 years old in the university showers, but he did not report it to the police. As sickening as the allegations against Sandusky are, perhaps even more disturbing is what some have dubbed a cover-up by Penn State officials.